Wednesday, April 2, 2014

You probably do not want to know this, but
it is not a defect in your carpet. It is called soil filtration which is a term
used to describe dark, gray (sometimes black) lines that appear on carpet. Soil
filtration occurs because the carpet acts as a filter to dust and other
airborne particles resulting from a concentrated flow of air over the carpet.
It is most commonly found around baseboards, under doors and along the edges of
stairs.

The primary reason for this concentrated
flow of air is pressure changes within a room. Pressure changes occur within a
room from either the effect of warmer air rising or from your heater or air
conditioner blowing

air into a room without a return vent. Because of the
pressure change, air tries to flow either in or out of the room. For walls that
are not sealed to the floor, air moves in and out of the room at these areas
and that is why you will see it along walls and stairs. For these situations,
unless the air leakage areas are addressed, the soil filtration will continue
to occur.

Also, have you ever noticed a grayish or
dark line at the doorway of a room? Especially a closet or a room that is
rarely used and the door is always shut. Once again, soil filtration. It is
quite common for dirt and dust to accumulate under doors when they are shut.
Due to pressure differences between rooms (as described above), air will flow
from the high pressure

room to the lower pressure through the largest available
holes. With the door shut, the undercut of the door is generally the largest
available hole. Therefore, as the air passes between the door undercut and the
carpeting, the carpet acts like a filter taking out dirt and dust particles
from the air. For these situations, you might consider leaving the door cracked
so air can move around the door and not under the door.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Are you worried that the carpet or rug is degrading. Don’t
worry. This is a natural characteristic of wool carpets and rugs.

Some pilling and
shedding can occur with all wool carpets and rugs. This is a natural
characteristic of wool carpeting because wool carpets are made from short
“staple” fibers. A staple fiber is a short

length of fiber generally ranging
from 4 to 8 inches long which is then spun into a yarn comprised of these short
lengths. As we all know, wool is sheared from sheep. The result is short
lengths of fiber which is then woven into a yarn. Because the yarn is made up
of millions of short fibers, there are millions and millions of ends of these
fibers in the carpet. Kind of like split ends in a person’s hair. It is
impossible to remove all of these loose ends in the construction process. The
result is these ends come out or shed when vacuuming.

Once again, no
need to worry. Wool carpets will not wear out from the loss of fiber. They can “ugly
out” from use and abuse but they won’t fall apart. Also, the thicker the
carpet yarn, the more likely you are to see shedding. Once again, no need to
panic. The shedding should diminish with time but it will never go away completely.
There will always be some fiber in the vacuum canister. Remember, this is
normal.